Textbooks and Videogames - Newtmas

There may be more parts if so this is part 1?

Thomas

It snowed the day I met Newt. Jet-lagged and shivering, I trudged through the foreign streets to Hogwarts. Newt hates when I makes the comparison, but it really does look straight out a Harry Potter movie. Ancient stone walls, spires straining for the stars, and thousands of British students. Home for the next ten weeks.

Glade University facilitated The Program, but it was WICKED who created it. They paid our tuition fees, they wrote the syllabus, and they would be our employer upon completion. World In Catastrophe Killzone Experiment Department: an organisation born from the foresight (or perhaps hysteria) of world governments. If the world goes to shit, we'll have a last resort.

That's why I came to Scotland. Everyone wanted to work for WICKED. Word had spread among final year students even outside of the UK. They offer some of the most well-paid and sought after roles in the world. Which means the course was crazy competitive to get into.

I'm still not certain why they let me in. When I got the acceptance letter, I thought it must have been a fake. It didn't completely sink in until my first day in Glasgow: oh shit this is actually happening. My apartment was freaking tiny and I had to share it with three other students on The Program. But at least I wasn't paying rent – courtesy of WICKED.

Our first lecture started soon...I just had to find it out where. Twenty excruciating minutes later I stumbled through the door to the auditorium. The building looked like the inside of a church, judging by the stained glass and the organ pipes, it must've been converted from one. But I didn't have time to marvel at the interior, I couldn't make a worse impression than I already had: I'd be known as the guy who was late and stared at the ceiling instead of paying attention.

A radiant woman stood before the projection screen; the slide read: Every Day is an Interview, and noted the importance of punctuality and time management. An area in which I was definitely lacking. Out of breath and sweating, I took a seat at the back and glanced around the room. A couple rows in front, I caught a raven-haired girl's eyes, her lips curled and she turned and whispered something to the girl next to her.

The glowing woman flicked through the PowerPoint, giving an overview of The Program and it's importance: this could save humanity, you will be internationally renowned, you will push yourselves beyond your limits. It's like she was talking about her own child. Her whole body, still aflame as she read the final slide: her name and occupation, Ava Paige PhD Clinical Psychology - WICKED Program Leader, at the top.

'The Program is my life's work,' Ava said. 'To give this opportunity to such bright young minds is an honour. Over the next two and half months you will work within your own disciplines and across them to create a project. Giving you the invaluable skills needed to be hired at our organisation.'

Bright young minds, was she sure I was included in that too?

'You will now be split into your distinct groups. There are twenty of you in total: five designers and fifteen scientists. You will spend the first half of the day with experts in your own field, and the later half collaborating with the other to create something magnificent.' She smiled after that last word. This programme was more than her life's work: it was an obsession.

Of course I was in the smaller group. My work was much less important than that of scientists. I was less important than the scientists. A fish out of water. Not only as one of the few Americans, but the majority of these people were educated at Oxford or Cambridge and had degrees in stuff that could actually help people. Whereas my degree was in game design. I literally only chose it as my major because I liked playing videogames. During my interview, WICKED seemed really impressed with my level design skills: how I considered the player's psychology and my ability to manipulate the environment. But I couldn't see how that would be useful to the world's most elite employer.